It’s funny, just laugh.

So when my mom drove a Honda Civic hatchback, my older sister, Traci, came up with this game when she was in High School. We would be sitting at a stoplight. I was in the front seat, she was in the backseat directly behind me. I would then look over at the car next to me and make eye contact. As soon as I did, she would take her foot and hit the lever that dropped my seat backwards, so I would disappear from view of the person I was still making eye contact with. Ohhh the laughs we got from that game. We made so many drivers laugh too. And now, as I’m telling this story, I’m wondering – why was I the one who had to fall back dramatically and she was the one who got to push the lever and pretend like nothing was going on?

I’ve got this laugh that is so loud. I can’t help it. I know it most likely annoys people. But what can you do when its a part of you? I’ve gotten really good at the silent laugh, though. Because sometimes you have to use it when laughter is not appropriate. I don’t know why, but when its not appropriate is when it is funniest to me. This, was one of those times that I blogged about long ago. Its a classic. Go read that, then come back. I’ve had to break it out in important corporate world meetings, Dr’s offices, and church.

A lot of things make me laugh. Like the fact that my youngest daughter keeps taking these spanish Accelerated Reader tests and failing them. Why does she not stop the test and tell her teacher she can’t understand the questions? Or when I’m riding with my mom and someone flips her off due to her driving and she is completely oblivious. Or when Andy and I are “disagreeing” so we settle it with an all out wrestling match. Yesterday, this man in his suit and tie was out in the middle of a very busy intersection, trying to direct traffic away from the phone he had somehow dropped outside his car (how does that happen??) and was trying to retrieve it. I had a good laugh, all by myself, in the car.

Some people don’t do it enough. I know this because I was looking at all the cars passing by me as I was stopped at a stoplight and looking at their driver’s faces, wondering what their story was. Laughter is free. Its good for the soul. Why do we take ourselves so seriously? Why do we take others so seriously? I know there is a lot of heavy stuff that goes on in the world. I’ve experienced it. There is quite possibly some on the horizon for me. But the truth is, sometimes you just need to laugh. Here’s your Just Finish Strong dare for the next 24 hours. Play the “passenger falls” in the car game. Your not going to do that, I know. So find something super funny in a totally serious situation and do the silent laugh. Then come back and tell me. So I can laugh about it too.